-:Undertaker:-
14-11-2010, 07:28 PM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1329611/The-2-2billion-superlab-scientists-creating-star-Earth.html
The £2.2billion superlab where scientists are creating a star on Earth
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/11/14/article-1329611-0C104FAA000005DC-643_638x454.jpg
It may look like any average building but behind closed doors could lie the answer to safe renewable energy of the future. Here at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore California, scientists are aiming to build the world's first sustainable fusion reactor by 'creating a miniature star on Earth'. Following a series of key experiments over the last few weeks, the £2.2 billion project has inched a little closer to its goal of igniting a workable fusion reaction by 2012.
According to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) team in Livermore, on November 2 they fired up the 192 lasers beams at the centre of the reactor and aimed them at a glass target containing tritium and deuterium gas. The resulting release of energy was of a magnitude of 1.3 million mega joules, which was a world record and the peak radiation temperature measure at the core was approximately six million degrees Fahrenheit. For a direct comparison, the temperature at the centre of the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. However, this recent experiment was not 'live' in that no self-sustaining fusion reaction was set off, although the scientists at NIF are extremely confident for the future.
'The results of all of these experiments are extremely encouraging,' said the NIF director Ed Moses. 'They give us great confidence that we will be able to achieve ignition conditions in deuterium-tritium fusion targets.' Researchers have been working towards this kind of breakthrough since the facility began construction in 1997. Anticipating that self-sustaining fusion could be a reality within two years, the implications for the planet are astounding. Officials at NIF estimate that a prototype power station version of the fusion reactor could be operational by 2020 and that by 2050, almost a quarter of the United States energy could be supplied by fusion power. The National Ignition Facility is the brainchild of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and is the world's largest laser scientific construction project. It is inside NIF's 130-ton target chamber where the neutrons fired by the 192 lasers stimulate the fusion reaction.
The holes in the chamber which is 10 metres in diameter and covered in 30 cm thick concrete permits the 192 laser beams to enter the chamber. The process is known as conducting inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and when the reactor eventually goes live it will generate unprecedented temperatures and pressures in the target materials which are held in a tiny glass ball. The temperatures inside the chamber will be more than 100 million degrees and create pressures more than 100 billion times Earth's atmospheric pressure. These conditions are more similar to those in the stars, cores of giant planets rather than in a government facility just east of San Francisco.
Well thats some good news, whether or not it'll take off (cost) then that remains to be seen. But we need better energy sources because of the energy security issues surrounding the likes of oil and gas (and no, not them ridiculous wind farms and solar panels that do not work and which mean bills continue to rise year on year). This is the sort of stuff we should be putting money towards (rather than the other nonsense we do), imagine if Britain developed something like this and we could export it around the world? employment, advancement and we'd have money coming here.
Thoughts?
The £2.2billion superlab where scientists are creating a star on Earth
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/11/14/article-1329611-0C104FAA000005DC-643_638x454.jpg
It may look like any average building but behind closed doors could lie the answer to safe renewable energy of the future. Here at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore California, scientists are aiming to build the world's first sustainable fusion reactor by 'creating a miniature star on Earth'. Following a series of key experiments over the last few weeks, the £2.2 billion project has inched a little closer to its goal of igniting a workable fusion reaction by 2012.
According to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) team in Livermore, on November 2 they fired up the 192 lasers beams at the centre of the reactor and aimed them at a glass target containing tritium and deuterium gas. The resulting release of energy was of a magnitude of 1.3 million mega joules, which was a world record and the peak radiation temperature measure at the core was approximately six million degrees Fahrenheit. For a direct comparison, the temperature at the centre of the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. However, this recent experiment was not 'live' in that no self-sustaining fusion reaction was set off, although the scientists at NIF are extremely confident for the future.
'The results of all of these experiments are extremely encouraging,' said the NIF director Ed Moses. 'They give us great confidence that we will be able to achieve ignition conditions in deuterium-tritium fusion targets.' Researchers have been working towards this kind of breakthrough since the facility began construction in 1997. Anticipating that self-sustaining fusion could be a reality within two years, the implications for the planet are astounding. Officials at NIF estimate that a prototype power station version of the fusion reactor could be operational by 2020 and that by 2050, almost a quarter of the United States energy could be supplied by fusion power. The National Ignition Facility is the brainchild of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and is the world's largest laser scientific construction project. It is inside NIF's 130-ton target chamber where the neutrons fired by the 192 lasers stimulate the fusion reaction.
The holes in the chamber which is 10 metres in diameter and covered in 30 cm thick concrete permits the 192 laser beams to enter the chamber. The process is known as conducting inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and when the reactor eventually goes live it will generate unprecedented temperatures and pressures in the target materials which are held in a tiny glass ball. The temperatures inside the chamber will be more than 100 million degrees and create pressures more than 100 billion times Earth's atmospheric pressure. These conditions are more similar to those in the stars, cores of giant planets rather than in a government facility just east of San Francisco.
Well thats some good news, whether or not it'll take off (cost) then that remains to be seen. But we need better energy sources because of the energy security issues surrounding the likes of oil and gas (and no, not them ridiculous wind farms and solar panels that do not work and which mean bills continue to rise year on year). This is the sort of stuff we should be putting money towards (rather than the other nonsense we do), imagine if Britain developed something like this and we could export it around the world? employment, advancement and we'd have money coming here.
Thoughts?